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IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Video conferencing not killing the classroom

Video conferencing allows students in SD51 more course variety.

Choices.

We all want them in life.

From what to eat, to wear, where to live and what to do with our lives.

Our students want and need choices in their learning too.

Personalizing learning for students is one key to success and high achievement levels.

It has become increasingly difficult for the school district to offer the choices and flexibility that we want to offer our students, especially at our two high schools.

Declining student numbers is the culprit in this story.

An unfortunate reality has been that as our student numbers drop, many of our elective courses go as well.

Sometimes it is student interest that spells the end for a course but more often, it is because we do not have enough interested students to run the course.

Core subjects come into the equation here.

If student numbers are down, that means instead of having four English 11 classes scattered throughout the timetable, we might only have three.

That then impacts students’ ability to choose an elective course. If that is the only choice for the English course, they must take conflicts with the elective that they are interested in.  That in turn affects the number of students available to take that particular elective.  It is a very serious domino effect, which is especially evident at our smallest high school, Boundary Central Secondary School (BCSS).

So how do we fix this?

We are not alone in this dilemma.  There are many school districts throughout the province facing this exact same issue.

Recently we sent a team to School District No. 73 (Kamloops/Thompson) to take a look at what they are doing with video conferencing to expand and enhance choices for students.

Here’s how it works; let’s say we have five students at Boundary Central that want to take French 12 and eight students at Grand Forks Secondary School (GFSS).

Not enough in either school to be able to run the course but together it is enough.

There is a teacher at GFSS that can offer the French 12 course, via video conferencing to the students at BCSS and the GFSS students at the same time.

Then the language teacher at BCSS could, say, offer Spanish to a group of students from both schools, again using video conferencing.  Offering classes through video conferencing gives students the choice and flexibility that is enjoyed by students in schools of larger numbers.  Our combined enrolment is around 600, a pretty good-sized school.

This is not online learning, this is not students sitting in front of a computer; it is real time learning with a real, live teacher.

Students and teachers in both locations see and hear each other, can interact, ask and answer questions etc.

Using web conferencing will expand student choice and that is fantastic but there are still some stumbling blocks.

Both schools need to be on the same timetable, technology issues like bandwidth and speed must be fully resolved and teachers would need to be provided with in-service to help them adapt to new methods of course delivery.

All fixable issues but it will take some time and money.

The board is fully committed in its five-year strategic plan to pursue this option for students and we are hopeful that next September, we will be able to offer some courses via video conferencing.

Ultimately, this means not only increased flexibility and choice but it means that we will be able to keep our teachers teaching in their area of specialty and it keeps our teachers numbers up.  No matter what learning tools you utilize, the most important element will continue to be the teacher that stands in front of students.

– Teresa Rezansoff is chairperson for the Board of Education for School District 51